This issue of Studies in American Humor is the first that has been fully funded by Southwest Texas State University. With the assurance of continuing financial support, the journal can now be published regularly. The last published issue was volume 3, number 3, dated January, 1977, although the actual publishing date was January, 1982. In order to make the date on the cover and the actual publication date coincide, I have decided to start a new series, eliminating, I hope, some bibliographical nightmares for those whose articles appear in the journal. Subscribers who have paid for volumes beyond number three will, of course, receive the number of volumes that they have paid for.

I should like to express my appreciation to a number of people at Southwest Texas who have worked hard to create funding for Studies in American Humor: Robert L. Hardesty, President of the University; Richard Miller, Vice President for Academic Affairs; Susan Wittig, Executive Assistant to the President; John Hill and Robert Gratz, Associate Vice Presidents for Academic Affairs; and Michael Orenduff, Acting Dean, School of Liberal Arts. Without these administrators and their vision, Studies in American Humor would not be alive today. Working closely with these administrators were my fellow-members of the English Department Therese Kayser Lindsey Steering Committee: Professors Martha Brunson, David Stevens, Robert Walts, and Dick Heaberlin. With the concurrence of the administration, they voted funds to support the journal from the Lindsey endowment. This generous endowment given by Mrs. Louise Lindsey Merrick in honor of her mother, Therese Kayser Lindsey, is what gives financial life to the journal.

I must also thank Professors Joseph Caputo and Keith Lovin, formerly of Southwest Texas State University, and now President and Vice President for Academic Affairs respectively at Millersville State College, Millersville, Pennsylvania. These two men laid the foundation for funding the journal by urging its support for several years before they left Southwest Texas.

I am personally grateful to James Langabeer and Harold Oldham of Southwest Texas for the strong and unstinting support that they have given me in the months since Jack Meathenia’s death.

I especially wish to thank Peggy Sue Meathenia for her kindness and support over the last few months. Despite her loss, she has helped keep the journal vital and has generously agreed to assign copyright ownership of Studies in American Humor to the University.

Finally, my debt to my friend and colleague Jack Meathenia cannot be measured. Studies in American Humor is his conception and his professional offspring. With the support of the university administration, my colleagues in the department, the members of the staff, the readers of and contributors to this journal, I know that Studies in American Humor will be worthy of his memory.

3